The AHDB’s fungicide performance trials confirm that the new SHDI fungicide from Syngenta is a valuable addition for septoria control.

Approved in April 2024, Miravis Plus also offers a step up in the control of ramularia in barley and fusarium head blight in wheat.

However, AHDB data also confirm that the new addition is less effective on brown rust, with the best performance in the 2024 trial coming from an SDHI first approved back in 2011.

See also: Pesticide rules: NI arable farmers losing out under Brexit

In the spring fungicide season of 2025, mixes containing Miravis or Bayer’s Vimoy, another recent newcomer which gained approval in October 2023, will be competing with Corteva’s Univoq and BASF’s Revystar.

Speaking at the AHDB Agronomy Conference, Niab director of agronomy Stuart Knight revealed performance data for the first time for newly approved Ipresso in both wheat and barley, along with BASF’s azole mix RevyPro in barley.

Septoria

Four straights were tested at a range of doses: the azole Myresa, the next-generation SDHIs Vimoy and Miravis, and Corteva’s Peqtiga. Three mixes were also included – Ipresso, Revystar and Univoq.  

In trials where septoria was the dominant disease, the highest three-year yield of the straights was seen with Miravis, followed closely by Peqtiga, reflecting their relative levels of disease control.

Along with the three mixes, they achieved the highest levels of septoria control.

Slightly behind were Vimoy and Myresa, which Stuart said still maintained good control.

© Blackthorn Arable

Yellow and brown rust

For brown rust, Stuart highlighted that 2024 was a very challenging year. Imtrex gave the highest level of control with less than 5% disease at the full label rate.

“Imtrex showed a very good performance in a difficult year,” he said.

But he stressed that it was just one trial and cautioned against expecting it to always perform as well in other trials.

Ipresso, Myresa and Vimoy also gave good control. However, Stuart highlighted that Elatus Era, which in its early years had shown good activity on brown rust, gave very variable control.

“We have seen a decline in efficacy and don’t know for certain why.”

Therefore, Elatus has been excluded from the three-year results, as they may not be representative of what to expect in future.

Looking at the over-year results, Revystar (containing Imtrex) was the standout performer, followed by three products (Vimoy, Ipresso and Myresa) which were all effective and gave very similar results.

Peqtiga and Miravis were not at the level of the other products.

With yellow rust, as in previous years, Elatus Era was the standout performer, and not far behind were Univoq and Ipresso.

Head blight

For head blight, three products were tested, with the standout being Miravis Plus.

Stuart said: “It gave extremely good control in head blight even at a relatively low percentage of its label dose and superior to what many people would see as the standard for head blight control – Proline – which gave 50% reduction in symptoms compared to the untreated.”

He added that while Myresa was further behind, it still gave useful control with a 40% reduction in symptoms.

Barley

Since the loss of the multisite chlorothalonil in 2020, ramularia has been a more difficult disease to manage.

However, extremely good control of ramularia was seen with Miravis Plus, with more than 80% reduction achieved at half label rate.

Myresa and Ipresso also gave reasonable control, and while not as good as Miravis, they are still better than the standard Proline.

“So we now have a number of options that offer better control than prothioconazole,” said Stuart.

The newcomer was also the best performer with net blotch.

Data for RevyPro was revealed for the first time at the conference, showing good control of rhynchosporium in 2024.

However, Stuart highlighted that this product is a mix of two azoles, and needs to be taken into consideration when designing fungicide programmes from a resistance point of view.

Mixes

Finally, Stuart highlighted that in practice, fungicides should always be applied in mixtures using a combination of fungicide groups to gain the best disease control and yields, and to reduce resistance risk.

While some straights looked impressive, mixes gave a broader spectrum of control and were more robust.

Stuart Knight was speaking at the recent AHDB Agronomy Conference